Flatt Outskates Nagasu for Title

SPOKANE, Wash.  On a night when figure skating fans had waited for the performance of Sasha Cohen, the skating star of old who was trying to make her third Olympic team, they ended up seeing two younger skaters sparkle even brighter.

Sasha Cohen, a 2006 Olympic silver medalist, fell in her performance. She dropped from second to fourth.

Rachael Flatt, the two-time runner-up at the United States Figure Skating Championships, had finally taken what she patiently has waited for: the national title. At 17, she won the competition Saturday with a strong free skate that included seven triple jumps.

In second was the 16-year-old Mirai Nagasu, the 2008 national champion, whose beauty and grace was dazzling. She gave the crowd a sly smile when she was done.

Both their performances were good enough for them to make the Olympic team headed for the 2010 Vancouver Games. A committee from United States Figure Skating confirmed them after the event, naming them to the two-woman team.

“I finally competed the way I’ve been training,” said Flatt, who trains in Colorado Springs. She said she could not stop shaking, even when she was done. “I’m very excited about how things went.”

Cohen’s effort, while noble after nearly four years away from competition, was simply not enough. The night, as it turned out, ended up being for the young.

Cohen, 25 and the 2006 Olympic silver medalist, finished fourth, with 174.28 points, but still managed to command some of the spotlight. She was second after the short program, which funneled excitement into the free skate.

The crowd erupted when Cohen took the ice in a black and gray dress with rhinestone-rimmed cutouts along its high neckline. The spectators sat silent as she skated to “Moonlight Sonata,” by Beethoven, and moved gracefully across the ice. Her goal had been to skate a clean program, particularly after she had such difficulty putting two clean programs together at big events.

Once again, she failed to do so.

“I still really appreciate the challenge that I embraced,” Cohen said. “It was just so special to be back after four years.”

Cohen said she was not sure if her comeback to competitive skating would continue. She did say, however, that she was proud of the young skaters who finished in the top three. While sitting in fourth on the podium, she stole glances at those skaters and grinned, looking genuinely happy.

“The girls are great, they’re cute, they are so excited,” she said. “It was really great to see how excited they were.”

Flatt could not contain her joy  or her giggling  as she soaked in the cheers of the crowd once her program was done.

She had come into the nationals as one of the favorites to make Olympic team because of her consistency. At the 2009 world championships, she finished fifth, the highest placement of any American woman. At the past two nationals, she was second.

Flatt’s short program was solid but still placed her third going into Saturday’s skate. She had sat at the news conference afterward, looking sullen. But, in the end, she was not shaken.

Tom Zakrajsek, Flatt’s coach, said Flatt spent an entire practice Friday with Dorothy Hamill, the 1976 Olympic gold medalist, who has been Flatt’s mentor. Flatt has been talking with Hamill each day at the nationals and was helping Flatt deal with the pressure of this competition.

“I think any time you’ve had someone that’s been there, someone that can relate to how you’re feeling, it definitely helps,” Zakrajsek said. “But this is what we trained for. It’s not like we haven’t ever simulated these circumstances.”

When it counted the most, Flatt delivered, as usual. She won the free skate, performing to “Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini,” by Rachmaninov, hitting each of her jumps with ease. At the end, she stood on the ice and looked shocked, as fans showered the ice with stuffed toys.

The crowd was just as thrilled for Nagasu, who had finished fifth last year after crying as she took the ice for her long program. Her coach, Frank Carroll, had instituted a “no crying rule,” which Nagasu said had made her tougher.

On Saturday, she landed all her jumps and made a difficult program look easy.

“You can tell that she’s skating with joy again,” said Scott Hamilton, the 1984 Olympic champion. “I think those demons are behind her. I think she’s going to be great from now on.”

Nagasu said Thursday that she expected to be the future of skating in the United States. But now she is the star of the present.

The United States has had six national champions in women’s singles the past six years. At the past three worlds, they have failed to win a medal, which is a streak last matched in 1962-64. “The U.S. is not on top of figure skating right now,” Nagasu said. “I think that’s an embarrassment because of the rich history the U.S. has.”

But Nagasu said she is sure of one thing: the American women are on an upswing.

More Articles in
Sports »A version of this article appeared in print on January 24, 2010, on page SP6 of the New York edition.